Planting trees helps more than just the environment
Natives produce food, boost birdlife and attract tourists, as well as fighting climate change, writes Adele Fitzpatrick ,of Trees That Count. How can you help?
It won’t come as a surprise for the chief executive of a programme called Trees That Count to say ‘‘I love trees’’. But I do. Our native trees are a special gift, and we all have a responsibility to restore and protect these gifts.
Trees That Count talks a great deal about the importance of planting native trees as part of the fight against climate change. That’s why we have a live count of native trees planted – because each native tree, which is purposefully planted and supported to grow into canopies that last for generations, is a powerful part of tackling our oversized footprint as a country.
But carbon offsetting is just one of many reasons why our native trees are so important. It’s something many people know, but struggle to articulate, when talking about the value of native conservation. We know we love trees, we know they’re important in many ways, but how can we measure and explain that to people who might not?
Thanks to Ta¯ ne’s Tree Trust and Dr Jacqui Aimers, a forestry scientist, we now have a wonderful piece of research that speaks to the ways in which our native trees are important.
One of the top things they do is enable honey production, which accounted for $316 million of our national exports in 2016. Ma¯ nuka honey is especially popular, and ma¯ nuka trees provide the added benefit of nurturing other native forest species as they grow, all whilst feeding bees and a valuable economic export.
Trees such as ma¯ nuka and ka¯ nuka are important in a growing skincare industry. Their oils have anti-microbial effects, and growers can obtain as much as $600 a tonne for raw foliage for ma¯ nuka oil extraction.
If you like whitebait sammies, then you should know it’s our native forests that will continue to make whitebait fishing possible (or not). Native trees help provide suitable habitat conditions and clean the streams where whitebait breed, so the more stream-repairing native plantings that happen, the better.
Native forests play an important role in gathering other types of food too, such as wild game, koura (freshwater crayfish) and pikopiko (edible fern shoots), which are becoming more popular in contemporary Kiwi cuisine. They generally provide better habitat for our native species than exotic forests, particularly for berry and nectar feeders. It’s great to hear that a survey of more than 1500 homes showed the average household would willingly pay $264 a year for five years to conserve key species in planted forests.
Compared with most other land uses, native forest has very low nutrient leaching. In fact, trees can contribute to nutrient recycling, absorbing nutrients from intensive agriculture. They are also vital for stabilising soils, reducing sedimentation, moderating water flows, and protecting downstream ecosystems and infrastructures. Approximately one million hectares of land is at serious risk of erosion, and this would be reduced by native tree planting.
Our forests are also part of the New Zealand experience, highly valued by locals and tourists alike. Where would we be without our native silver fern? Forests play a vital role in the national branding.
Native trees play a big part in the ambience and environments for recreation. In 2015, a nationwide survey showed spending time outdoors was important for 88 per cent of New Zealanders. This positively affects our mental health, community building and innovation.
Native forests are culturally and spiritually important for our tangata whenua, and the positive impact native forests have on water quality is vitally important to the mauri (life force) of freshwater ecosystems.
More and more, we are seeing ourselves as stewards, or kaitiaki, of this land. We care about things like the protection of our native birds and water quality, which is motivating us to put pressure on policy-makers.
But we also need to turn our minds, our pressure and our money to protecting and restoring native forests. It’s our forests that help keep our streams clean and allow native birds to thrive. Only native trees can contribute to the biodiversity of our land, speak to our cultural and spiritual values and create the iconic nature scenes that draw locals and tourists to our scenic places.